Wiesenthal Centre to International Criminal Court Prosecutor: "Ensure that State Terrorism Not Be Granted Impunity"

Wiesenthal Centre to International Criminal Court Prosecutor: "Ensure that State Terrorism Not Be Granted Impunity"

Paris, 9 November 2009

In a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Dr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, recalled their "2 July conversation, at the Paris International Diplomatic Academy, regarding the definition of the 1994 terrorist attack on the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Centre as a
crime against humanity."

Samuels reported that "last week, at a meeting in its Lyon headquarters, INTERPOL Secretary General, Ronald Noble, reaffirmed to Argentine Public Prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, the Red Notice international warrants for the arrest of six Iranians implicated in that atrocity."

The letter noted that "the question was also raised regarding prosecution of the accused – among them, ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, ex-Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and current Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi – by the International Criminal Court."

Samuels added, "Despite two successive Argentine Presidents' insistence from the United Nations General Assembly podium, Iran has ignored the demand for extradition to Buenos Aires."

The letter also pointed to the Centre "having identified the presence of two of the accused at a conference in Mecca, yet Saudi Arabia showed contempt for the subsequent Argentine detention order, in violation of its obligations to INTERPOL."

The Centre therefore proposed "either the direct intervention of the ICC with the Iranian authorities, or a request that third countries practising a form of universal jurisprudence - Belgium, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom – invoke their right to put these mass murderers on trial."

Samuels called on the Prosecutor's support "to ensure that the 85 innocent victims slaughtered and the over three hundred maimed at the AMIA receive justice."